Lesser White-fronted Goose – Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Reserve, Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, 24^th January 1988

On Sunday the 24th January, whilst on a twitch from Swanage in Dorset, where I was living whilst working at the BP Wytch Farm Project, and having seen what was probably a dodgy golden plover (as opposed to a Pacific Golden Plover) I continued on to Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve. Now, this wasn’t just to visit another (or more accurately the very first and best) Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve, I was on a mission.

Slimbridge (routinely?) had a vagrant wintering Lesser White-fronted Goose during some of most winters at this time*. So, whilst it was interesting to see Slimbridge itself (I likened it to a mature Martin Mere!) it was the goose I was after.

Having made my way to the crammed hides, I joined others working my way through the feeding flocks of (Russian) White-fronted Geese ad nauseum. This didn’t seem too promising, and it was also very annoying due to the presence of the youth wing of the movement.

However, salvation was eventually found in the form of the Lesser White-fronted Goose in front of another of the hides in the row.

Once in the hide it was just that – right in front – literally the closest bird! So (even though I had them around my feet on my way back through the collection) I got really close views, only a few hundred metres away! It was distinctly smaller than the host (Russian) White-fronted Geese, with a shorter (and as such seemingly thicker?) neck, and a high crown / forehead, noticeably shorter deep-based conical bill, with a darker head and neck, and a yellow orbital ring. As it was a first-winter bird, there was only a hint of a white ‘shield’ and no (strong) barring on the belly.

Many, many years later, courtesy of the finder, Mark Wilkinson, I saw another at Quendale, on South Mainland Shetland, in early October 2015. However, this was a somewhat plastic bird which was the offspring of wild-caught Russian birds, which had been released in Swedish Lapland on 8th July as part of the National Swedish Action Plan for the species’ recovery. Although it had clearly made it across the North Sea, it was more like to birds in the collection – it was very approachable, and as such not very credible.

* Whilst researching for this write-up, I discovered that the bird I saw was perhaps the last of the generally annual records of this species at Slimbridge. I also discovered that Sir Peter Scott had actually established Slimbridge precisely because he had discovered that the area was a regular wintering site for very small numbers of the species, having found the first record there in December 1945 (50% of all UK Lesser White-fronted Goose records are from Slimbridge). Further, the creation of Slimbridge led to the BBC Wildlife Unit being based in nearby Bristol.

A subsequent first-winter Lesser White-fronted Goose at Slimbridge WWT, Gloucestershire in 2003 (photograph credited to Paul Marshall).

 Western Black-eared Wheatear –Stiffkey, Norfolk, 30^th October 1993

A long-staying Black-eared Wheatear........ ? Eh? Is there such a thing? * 

Too good to miss says I.

So I travelled from my new job working on the Scotland to Northern Ireland Pipeline Project in Newton Stewart in Galloway to Leigh in Greater Manchester, on Friday the 29th October. Another twitch with Paul Pugh was in the offing.

At 06:00 the following morning we (Paul Pugh, Neil Tasker and I) were on our way to our appointment with a real blocker. After a run-in with a tractor and trailer en route we made it by c.09:30 – good going. The rest was equally easy – we parked up, walked along the shore path and then inland to the pig farm and (after a minor panic as it moved around as we arrived) the bird.

This proceeded to show well, firstly around the field beyond the pig farm, and then secondly, and memorably, around the pig farm itself.

It was a small(ish) wheatear – a pied-type. It was broadly similar in appearance to a female-type Northern Wheatear but was compact looking. Its plumage was pale and it had a orangey flush on the breast, and a wheatear tail pattern which involved a white rump with a narrow black tail band T which extended along the edges of the tail.

We made the most of our trip to North Norfolk by taking in a very confiding Olive-backed Pipit at Holkham Pines, before driving back to Wigan. En route, as we reached the A1, the pager alerted us to a Red-flanked Bluetail at Winspit in Dorset, but that was another story.

Subsequently, this bird become a Western Black-eared Wheatear....... .

* In researching this post, I came across a quote by Alan Tate, the rare bird photographer in which he noted, when referring to Black-eared Wheatear, "Until this record, the most notorious of species for never staying for a second day. I once met a birder who had twitched fourteen and not seen one! This popular October bird in Norfolk bucked the trend and stayed nine days, showing very well to a constant stream of admirers”. All the more amazing then, that we unblocked the even more enigmatic Red-flanked Bluetail the following day.

Black-eared Wheatear, Stiffkey, Norfolk, October 1993 (both photographs attributed to unknown).

Red-rumped Swallow – Corfe Mullen, Dorset, 20^th July 1988

Mr Harry Lovell’s Amazing Performing Red-rumped Swallow!!!

An attempt to capture the bird as it was when first seen in the gloaming on the late evening of the 20th July.

One evening (that of Wednesday the 20th July to be exact), whilst I was at ‘home’ in the flat I was renting in Westcliffe, Bournemouth (having moved there from Swanage via a temporary stay in Poole whilst working on the Purbeck to Southampton Pipeline) I received a ‘phone call from Paul Pugh about a Red-rumped Swallow in Dorset.

It transpired that there had briefly been a message on Birdline about an apparently breeding bird somewhere in the county, before the message was deleted (presumably as it related to a breeding bird....).

Obviously, given she was an office holder of the New Dorset Bird Club (she was the Membership Secretary) I immediately ‘phoned Alison, my then girlfriend, and prevailed upon her. She was tasked with finding out all she could..... . Suitably intimidated into action, she ‘phoned George Green, the Chairman of the New Dorset Bird Club (I was never quite sure what happened to the old club....).

Anyway, the girl done good, and so we rushed, as late as it was, to Corfe Mullen, me collecting Alison from Merley en route. Why? Well, it transpired that this is where the bird was; we found our way to a large estate house near a road junction just off the A31.

Once parked up, we joined others (a few others) at the entrance to the drive of the house from where the bird could be seen roosting on some wires. Amazing!!!

Views that evening were not helped by the fading light, but at least the bird was perched.

However, the next day (obviously, given I was working on the pipeline and out on site all day everyday!) I returned. Once again, I waited at the entrance to the drive, but this time, the owner of the house, Mr. Harry Lovell, invited me in to the driveway and provided me with a chair and a cup of tea! In these perfect conditions I waited for perfect views, but, unfortunately, I was probably sitting too close, as although the bird circled around and around, it only visited the nest (it was, in fact, ‘assisting’ at an active House Martin nest) once. (I think Mr. Harry Lovell was lonely, and once he had got over his concerns about lots of people descending on him to see his bird, he quite liked the attention that it, and therefore he, got).

I returned on many other occasions to watch this amazing bird (it was fantastic escape from the pressures of working on the pipeline).

Compared to a swallow it could be picked out by the subtly broader, blunter wings and thicker tail streamers (which had a tuning fork -like configuration). It was distinctive in flight – circling high and relatively slowly? It had an orangey-buff rump, and similarly colour nape and supercilium, with pale under-parts and dark metallic blue back and crown, and blackish wings and tail. It had a distinctive ‘chewick’ call.

Subsequently I saw one at Stodmarsh in Kent in April 1990 and others at Spurn and on St Mary’s.. .

Clearly one of my photographs, but even in this poor image the distinctive 'jizz' of the species when in flight is apparent.

The house of Mr Harry Lovell showing the House Martin nest that the Red-rumped Swallow was assisting at.

Red-rumped Swallow, Corfe Mullen, Dorset, July 1988 (photograph credited to unknown).

 Nutcracker – Cocknage Wood, near Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, 18^th October 1991

Perhaps I should have long weekends more often?

It was autumn 1991, and I had spent the preceding months working on the construction of the Shell North West Ethylene Pipeline in Lancashire and Cheshire, based at offices in Preston and staying at my Auntie’s in Lytham during the week, and at my friend Carol Carrington’s at the weekends. And very full on it was (I invoiced for 168 hours in a fortnight in the most intensive phase). As such, I rarely had the opportunity to visit St. Albans, where I still nominally lived.

However, on this particular occasion, I had managed to get a flyer on the Friday afternoon to get my weekend in St. Albans off to a good start. Better, I ‘phoned Birdline and was advised that there was a Nutcracker at Cocknage Wood, near Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire (it had been there since the 15th October, perhaps betraying that there was little time or purpose in me ‘phoning Birdline earlier during the working week?). All the same, this was now very convenient, given I would soon be passing on the M6.

Oh, that they were always that easy! Once there (oh, that it was that easy!) I was rewarded with excellent if intermittent views of a Nutcracker as it gambolled across the back lawn of a large house like an outsized demented Starling, fly-catching.

It was dark brown overall, with intricate white flecking and white under-tail coverts. There was less white flecking on the remiges, crown, etc., and the bill was stout and pointed.

The scene of the corvid.....

Nutcracker, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, October 1991 (photograph credited to unknown).

https://youtu.be/eov8LBDSUi0 Nutcracker video (video credited to Alan Shaw).